Re: Clarification on :::= Variable Assignment Operator?

On Thu, 2022-02-03 at 12:43 -0800, Jon Forrest wrote:
> Several places in variable.c and variable.h mention the ':::='
> variable assignment operator, and describe it as
> a Posix addition. However, I can't find any mention of it anywhere on
> the Internet or in the Gmake manual.

It's not in any released version of GNU make.  It was only added last
fall.  Unfortunately it looks like I forgot to add it to the NEWS file.

You can find out more in the Git commit:

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/make.git/commit/?id=6c06c547dcc990a9db0648d66b6a6519c3d1e5d4

and in the unreleased docs:

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/make.git/tree/doc/make.texi?id=6c06c547dcc990a9db0648d66b6a6519c3d1e5d4#n5563

> What I did find were lots of mentions of the '::=' operator.

That exists, too.

> Is ':::=' a typo?

No, it's real.  You can find more info here:

https://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1471

although there was a lengthy discussion on the mailing list after that
as well.